New York 2, Boston 1

New York Islander Fan Central | 11/25/2007 04:09:00 AM | | |


















Islanders Website: Has Saturday's recap of the Islanders 2-1 over the Boston Bruins.

"We had a team meeting this morning, and discussed that the only thing we can control is our effort," said Nolan. "If we play like that on a regular basis, we'll win our share of games. Tonight we can walk out of the rink feeling we gave everything we had to give. We're fortunate to get another big goal from Richard Park. He's scored some big for us since he's been here."

"I've been obviously pressing quite a bit," admitted Hilbert. "I've been getting scoring chances, but none of them have been going in. When I got to the bench it was one of those things where you don't have to worry about it anymore. It was nice to get one when it mattered. It doesn't really matter unless you win the game. Ricky played great and Richard got a huge goal for us. Right down the line everyone stepped up."


NYI Fan Central Comments:
Not sure what I want to write about this game.

I do not want to do a blog that's dwells on the negative but also I cannot break out significant praise when it's clear this team has some major offensive weeknesses that no words from the coach or line comnbination can seemingly correct. I can keep writing any win is great and I'll take it and in the context of one game it's a solid team win. That written I'm looking at the big picture which also includes a team playing some fantastic defense that apparently must continue because their most important offensive players are not producing.

Islanders go into a game they have not scored more than two goals in seven. They they did not put up a great effort in the last two games and only score a goal from Andy Hilbert that Tim Thomas did not play well and a good effort from Fedotenko, Bergenheim, Park for the second goal?

If this were written in the context of a single game I would give more credit to Tim Thomas because he's had an outstanding season. Outside of Hilbert's goal he was very good but he did not face many great chances, he did control his rebounds well.

The key players on this team simply are not scoring. Bill Guerin, Mike Comrie, Miroslav Satan, Mike Sillinger, Ruslan Fedotenko and Trent Hunter have to score on a regular basis, it's not happening and they are trying. Only bad decision all night by that group was Comrie not backchecking on the Boston goal and one of his penalties.

Islanders skated hard, they dominated faceoffs, shots and play. It should have been a much easier win but the powerplay did very little and they did not put Tim Thomas into a situtation where he had no chance like the one Boston scored on where DiPietro had no chance. That's what teams with offensive chemistry can do, it's what the Islanders did the opening weekend.

Ted Nolan made some changes and put Bergeron back in the lineup for Jackaman and dressed seven defenders. He moved Fedotenko with Satan and Vasicek and put Chris Simon on the first line and it almost produced an early goal. One of his teams powerplay's had five shots but mostly looked lost.

Defense and in the faceoff department the Islanders played very well and Boston again seemed content to play a low scoring game. Campoli had some outstanding hits and played with a lot of smart aggression (no bad penalty) where he has learned when and how to throw a hit. Sutton's dive to take the puck off a Bruin who had a step on him was an outstanding play. Witt, Martinek, Gervais, Berard also had very strong defensive games and the team defense overall was strong.

DiPietro was not tested much but he had to make a few very good saves.

Ok, it's a win, I'll take it and they worked hard to get it. I don't know how long they can even play around five hundred unless they start getting some goals to go with that defense.

This team is around sixth in the conference right now, imagine if it does start scoring?